When someone demanded a “men-only” Star Wars screening, this woman had the best possible answer

Spare a thought for whiny men’s rights activists everywhere, won’t you? Earlier this week, their precious male privilege was threatened by news of a badass women-only screening of the new Wonder Woman film – and they quickly flooded Twitter with a series of outraged grunts.

Typing through the pain of his bruised and battered ego, one even attempted to string together a series of actual words in a desperate bid to negotiate a compromise. Not that he made much sense, of course…

Thankfully, Jennifer Heddle – aka the executive editor of fiction at LucasFilm – was there to swoop in and put this snowflakey manlet firmly back in his place. And she did it in a gloriously brutal 140 characters, too.

Her tweet serves as an important reminder that tons of women work on (and enjoy) the Star Wars franchise – and that the sci-fi films have always resonated with feminists.

After all, when A New Hope roared into cinemas back in 1977, we were all introduced to an outspoken damsel in distress, who not only rescued herself, but also helped to get a short stormtrooper, nerf-herder, and a walking carpet out of Darth Vader’s villainous clutches, too.

Yes, Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) was one of the first sci-fi females to take ownership of her own destiny – and, nowadays, women also have the likes of Star Wars VIII’s Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Rogue One’s Jyn (Felicity Jones) to look up to, too.

And plenty of people on Twitter stepped in to remind howling meninists of that point, too.

This writer would also like to point out that she spent much of her childhood pretending to be Princess Leia and she’s sick of all these fly boys acting like the sci-fi genre owes them something. Star Wars is every bit as important to womankind as Wonder Woman is, giving us a heroine who bravely forged a path for all who followed to be ballsy, intelligent and defiant. And she did it all whilst being the ultimate woman in a man’s world, forever refusing to let the struggle define her.

So, yes, it goes without saying that we’re very excited for Star Wars: The Last Jedi to hit cinemas on 15 December – and that women will, obviously, be allowed into any and all official screenings of the female-led franchise.

In the meantime, we have the release of Wonder Woman on 2 June to look forward to.

Merciful Minerva!

Images: Rex Features

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Kayleigh Dray

Kayleigh Dray is editor of Stylist.co.uk, where she chases after rogue apostrophes and specialises in films, comic books, feminism and television. On a weekend, you can usually find her drinking copious amounts of tea and playing boardgames with her friends.